LOTTOMIKE:
Again, we appreciate your support, but it's not a matter of giving up; we've exhausted all of our resources.
The press will no longer give us an audience.
Our legislators stopped speaking to us after they were satisfied we had no knowledge of the scratch-off ticket scandal (before it went public).
People who work for the police agency (Marion County Prosecutor's office) charged with the investigation are quitting and going to work for the Hoosier Lottery.
Lottery revenues are being shoveled into the Policemen's, Firemen's and Teachers' pension funds, so what can we expect the State Police to find during an investigation which will affect their own pensions?
Representative Alderman feigned indignation and promised to force the Hoosier Lottery to return to an honest game. That bill died in committee when the Democrats staged a walkout, with the express purpose, in my opinion, of defeating lottery reform in Indiana. Other bills which died as a result of the walkout are being resurrected by other means, but not the one that would fix the lottery.
Alderman suddenly announced he is quitting with no explanation. Is it just a coincidence that he served on the Indiana Gaming Commission as well? With the departure of Governor Joe Kernan and his band of thieves, maybe Alderman is no longer getting his share of the loot from our crooked state lottery, and has decided to retire to Bermuda.
We've been to see the FBI, the SEC, the Marion County Grand Jury, countless reporters, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours and other TV news magazines, local news directors, legislators, attorneys general, private-practice attorneys and Hoosier Lottery officials. LosingJeff even contacted Ralph Nader's consumer advocacy group.
No luck.
Law enforcement officials don't want to look into it too deeply because, as near as I can tell, they're terrified of what they might find. Our lawmakers don't want anything done because they perceive a non-existent loss of revenue for the state when the lottery is shut down and retooled (the state actually benefits very little from our lottery; most of the money raised goes directly to those pension funds, to "shore them up"). We can't get an attorney to sue in civil court (we've contacted four) because they're afraid the legislators and police will make it very difficult for them to make a living. Our own Attorney General told us that, if any wrongdoing were proven, his office would be defending the crooked lottery officials.
We fought as hard as any two people could. When we first decided to make a stand, I truly believed we would prevail, since we we had the truth and indisputable evidence on our side. Sadly, even at that time, if I had to make a wager, I would have had to bet against LosingJeff and I. Two people allied against an entire army is something more than a longshot, so we were probably beaten before the first salvo was fired. We needed more people on our side.
I blame the people of Indiana. If they weren't so blatantly obtuse, they would have listened to the alarm we raised. They chose to ignore it, so now, unwittingly, they'll be paying for that mistake for many years to come, as I seriously doubt the Hoosier lottery will develop a conscience anytime soon.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say, but stupidity can be a very expensive commodity, as the citizens of Indiana will dventually discover in another twenty or thirty years or so.